GERMANY MOBILITY | LearnandEarn

Germany Gummersbach Mobility

Monday 13th May 2019

The second Learning/Teaching/Training activity of the ERASMUS+ KA2 Project Learn & Earn took place in Gummersbach, Germany from 12 May to 18 May 2019. The guest participants, teachers and students, came from 3 European countries: Italy (Catania), Malta (Paola) and Portugal (Fatima).

The first day started with an official welcome by the headmistress, Frau Dick, and the representative of the county council and the district administration, Herr Schmallenbach. After that, the guest students showed slides on what they already knew about Germany. All teams went on to display the most popular brands of each country.

Malta Slide link, Italy Slide link,Portugal Slide link,

After the coffee break the national teams explained “How to launch a business in Germany, Italy, Malta, and Portugal. These presentations finished the “homework” for the Gummersbach meeting. Italian Link, Germany Link, Malta Link, Portugal Link. Also, the students from each country prepared a presention of the most poplular brands in each country. Germany link1, Germany link2, Germany link3, Germany link4, Malta link, Italy link, Portugal link.

In the afternoon the teachers and the international student followed a tour of the school guided by German students as well as a guided tour of the town of Gummersbach.

Tuesday 14th May 2019

In the morning we all hopped on a bus that took us to the town of Lüdenscheid, which is well-known for its dynamic industries and start-up companies. We first visited the company Wiking/Siku, which has been producing model cars for many years. The guides introduced us to their company history by showing the model cars produced at various stages in a big company exhibition hall. Then came the more exciting part: the students were allowed to take part in a model car race. They conducted electric sports cars around a difficult race track with the help of a remote control. After a series of exciting races, the participants with the highest number of laps won the trophy.

Over lunch we were welcomed by the district administrator of Lüdenscheid, a function comparable to the Lord Mayor of a city.

In the afternoon we attended a presentation by the managing director and founder of an award-winning start-up: a climbing hall. He explained the details of his business plan and the marketing of his indoor-climbing hall. Afterwards, most of the students and some of the teachers volunteered to take part in an introductory climbing lesson on the premises, which turned out to be great fun.

Wednesday 15th May 2019

A day of hard work at school awaited us, when we took the first training course given by the director of the local business start-up centre (GTC), Frau Susanne Roll, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. All the internationally mixed groups took their turn to present interesting results to the members of the other groups. We had a short lunch break with sandwiches made by the assistants of the school kiosk. The afternoon course dealt with various aspects of marketing the products and services of start-ups. This included a practical task as well.

After the long work day all project meeting participants enjoyed dinner together at the Gummersbach Brauhaus.

Thursday 16th May 2019

After the 70 minute train-ride from Gummersbach to Cologne, we attended a presentation at the Cologne Digital Start-up Hub, a consultancy founded by three institutions: the City of Cologne, the University of Cologne and the local Chamber of Commerce, to help young founders realize their business plans. Young business people with often brilliant ideas can rent office space and get advice concerning the establishment of businesses to put their ideas into practice. We listened to their enthusiastic accounts.

After the session, we walked to the city centre and explored Cologne in little groups and also as followers of a guided tour of the city, which included some of the most famous sites of the more than 2000 year-old city of Cologne. It also drew our attention to the legendary Cologne street art scene. The teachers took the opportunity to have lunch in one of the well-known breweries.

After a long day, which included some shopping as well, we reached Gummersbach again at 20:40.

Friday 17th May 2019

The last working day began with the presentation of a former student of the German school, who established an egg carton distribution company. What sounds like a joke is now a company with a considerable turnover. The next activity was a field research task, which the students carried out on the school premises. The international group of Learn & Earn participants were asked to do some market research among fellow students in Gummersbach for the development of an – as yet – fictitious product: a mobile app developed to facilitate the commuting of students. The results were presented and evaluated immediately afterwards. Meanwhile, the teachers had held their focus group discussion in evaluation of the project and planned the periods for further project meetings.

The students held their evaluation meeting after their market research task and discussed the questions in groups of approximately 8 students, which they wrote down in the end. Summing up the week was postponed till after the meeting, as everyone now received the certificates.

After lunch at the University canteen in Gummersbach, we all attended the local start-up fair, an event organized to get young business people and potential founders into contact with relevant institutions of the area. Experts were able to advise them on different practical aspects of establishing one’s own company.

Meanwhile, some of the German teachers had organized a big farewell barbecue in the park of the neighbouring town of Wiehl. Everyone was having fun in the park and we enjoyed meeting some of the host families.